Dave, a friend of ours in Bozeman, has four hens: Heidi, Hilda, Helen, and Henrietta. They congregate around him, clucking and cooing. Dave calls them the Super Hens and jokes that he can read prophecies in their egg yolks on everything from weather forecasts to election results. They act more like pets than what most people expect in poultry. The chickens are a daily delight for him. When Dave is enjoying the sights and ambience of Europe, he often writes that he misses his chickens.

I’m delighted that we’ll be keeping chickens this spring. Grant is building a portable chicken house so we can move it through the yard, fertilizing it as we go and aerating the lawn.

Keeping chickens

Chickens are the hot new addition to back yards, with very good reason. They’re loaded with personality, provide delicious eggs on a regular basis, and keep down the bug problem.

They’re also pretty easy to keep. They need a home that’s dry and well ventilated. If you live in a cold climate, it’s great if you have an insulated house where you can at least hang a lamp. In warmer climates, keeping the chickens cool is more important, which means adding a small fan to keep air moving.

Chickens need at least two square feet of floor space inside the coop, including one nesting box for every couple of hens. The ones I’ve seen with foot-square (12 x 12 x 12) nesting boxes seem to work very well. Outside, most poultry experts say chickens do best with ten square feet per bird, although turning them loose is even better, particularly for pest control.

Pest control

Chickens make a fantastic cleanup crew for bugs, even fire ants. You’d think they’d be awful to eat, but to chickens, they’re a spicy bite on the menu.

I’m looking forward to having the hens around to hopefully keep the grasshopper population manageable. The protein does wonders for their diet while keeping the hoppers from eating ours. Allowing the chickens to range freely makes eggs that are healthful and delicious. This is one reason free range eggs are more expensive in the store.

The only drawback is the chickens will clean out the garden faster than the bugs if they’re let inside the area. I’m going to have to install a short fence to keep them out of bounds, or I might discover newly tilled areas and no veggies. One of their favorite treats is a hanging head of cabbage for them to munch, but they don’t differentiate between cabbage given to them and cabbage growing in the garden.

When the garden is done in the late fall, I will let them cruise through cleaning up spent plants and pick off frosted produce. They also take care of any insects that are overwintering near the surface of the soil or under plant litter. It’s a win-win for everyone.